England off to a Finn start as hat-trick secures victory

Steven Finn ended home resistance with a hat-trick to put a previously unsuspected gloss on England’s opening victory over a Hyderabad Cricket Association XI yesterday.

In truth, it was Ravi Bopara, with 73, and Chris Woakes who did most to get their team off to a winning start as England mustered 219 all out in this first warm-up match.

Woakes followed his unbeaten 46 with two wickets in two balls to break the spirit of a home reply just as Arjun Yadav was jockeying a position to challenge.

England’s top order failed to come to terms with a slow pitch at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium after Alastair Cook had won the toss – leaving Bopara and Woakes to dig out a defendable total.

The tourists hardly made an auspicious start with the bat, and it was even more ominous for them when Finn’s first ball of the Hyderabad innings was hooked for six straight on to a whitewashed wall at deep backward-square.

Akshat Reddy’s fun did not last long, though – because he set off for a solo single in the next over and had no chance of retrieving his ground before Ian Bell’s throw came in from cover. For the record, Finn had Amol Shinde caught behind slogging and then bowled Kaneshuk Naidu and pinned Anwar Khan lbw to see the hosts off for 163 and secure an England win by 56 runs with more than three overs to spare.

By the 14th over of England’s innings, they had been 47 for four and were badly in need of some nous from Bopara and Jonny Bairstow.

Bopara had hit off-spinner Shinde for a straight six, and from the outset was batting more convincingly than his team-mates.

Bairstow also shaped encouragingly, only to fall to an outstanding one-handed catch by a diving Bist at point. Bopara reached his fifty from 62 balls, with just one four to go with his six, but England were nonetheless grateful for his graft.

Bopara and Woakes shared the highest stand of the innings – 46 for the seventh wicket – until the number five was caught behind driving at some swing from Anwar in the second over of a powerplay which the tourists were in no position to exploit.

Woakes and Swann then shared a handy and sensible partnership too.

It was far from an impressive demonstration of England’s batting potential in what was a forgettable performance until Finn’s late intervention.